Mod Bod | Maxiskirt Refashion

Everywhere I look, I see very cute maxiskirts littering the internet, especially in one blog I follow, Sloanbook. I've really wanted one, but my proportions are a little weird (think short legs, normal torso) and I hesitate before trying a new shape or length on the bottom half of my body. However, my need to transform a very plain jersey dress into something more useful and wearable outweighed my fear of trying a new style. Was it fate?

I haven't been able to find a great jersey knit source in Salt Lake City yet (I've heard JoAnn's in Bountiful has some good selection) so I decided to use an extra-large t-shirt I grabbed on a sale-inspired whim. I also wanted to try my hand at dyeing fabric, which, while time consuming, was fairly easy to do. This is how it turned out:

STEP 1: I decided I wanted my waistband to be about 5" thick, so I folded the t-shirt in half, sliced off the bottom hem, and sliced another strip 11" thick (twice the width of my desired waistband plus an inch for seam allowances).

STEP 2: I folded the strip in half, wrapped it around my waist, and used pins to secure the band at the tightness I wanted. I decided to taper the top in on both sides to help the skirt stay in place. I cut along the pin lines, leaving about 1/2" extra fabric on each edge.

STEP 3: I unpinned and unfolded everything, giving me two rectangles with hour-glass shaped cutouts on either side. I pinned the hourglass sides together and sewed a medium zig-zag stitch along both sides. I refolded the band at the halfway point and gave it a quick press.

STEP 4: I carefully chopped off the top straps of the jersey dress, trying to create as flat of a top surface as possible. Placing the waistband upside-down and outside the circumference of the dress opening, I pinned the two pieces in place. The jersey dress was just slightly larger than my waistband, so I created a few pin tucks at intervals around the jersey dress, pinning them into place.

STEP 5: I zig-zag stitched around the entire waist, overlapping the ends on my stitching by about an inch.

STEP 6: Following the directions on my Wine-colored Rit dye, I breezed my way through coloring the maxiskirt. I used a pretty high-tech setup, as you can see below. I left the skirt in the dye bath for 45 minutes and probably spent 15 minutes trying to rinse out the residual dye. I eventually gave up on a complete rinse and threw the skirt in the washer to finish the job.

I don't know that I pull this off as well as Ashley from Sloanbook, but it's better than the original dress, right?